A blog maintained by the team working to hold
oil giant Chevron accountable for its human rights
and environmental abuses in Ecuador

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Thursday, March 24, 2016

Actor and journalist Alec Baldwin has used his popular podcast "Here's The Thing" to interview human rights attorney Steven Donziger about Chevron's pollution disaster in Ecuador's rainforest.

The interview, broadcast on National Public Radio's outlet in New York, is here.

Donziger, who for two decades has helped Ecuador indigenous and farmer communities win a historic $10 billion environmental judgment against Chevron, used the interview to explain the ongoing environmental devastation, high cancer rates, and public health crisis caused by the oil major's decision to discharge billions of gallons of toxic waste into the Amazon rainforest. Chevron operated in Ecuador under the Texaco brand from 1964 to 1992.

Three layers of courts in Ecuador -- the country where Chevron insisted the trial be held -- have found the company guilty. Chevron admitted that it abandoned an estimated 1,000 unlined toxic waste pits in the Amazon that continue to contaminate soils, groundwater, and rivers. Ecuador's Supreme Court unanimously confirmed the judgment against Chevron in 2013.

The affected communities are trying seize Chevron assets in Canada and other countries to force the company to comply with the judgment. Chevron stripped its assets from Ecuador in 2007 in anticipation of losing the case. The Canadian Supreme Court last year unanimously denied Chevron's attempt to block the asset collection action, leading to major new difficulties for the company.

Baldwin's podcast is enormously popular and often reaches millions of listeners. In recent months, he has interviewed people as diverse as actors Sarah Jessica Parker and Dustin Hoffman, Comedian Amy Schumer, Doctors Without Borders President Joanne Lui, and environmental activist Antonia Juhasz.